Premier Gordon Campbell has guaranteed that construction for the Evergreen Line will start in the spring of 2011. It is a promise, however, that is made on the backs of the municipalities, not his own government.

Watching the Translink Mayors’ Council go back and forth with regards to Translink’s demands for funding is becoming exhausting, and is most definitely frustrating.

It is time to take the gloves off, and go bare knuckle with the ailing Premier (you know, the one who has a 12 per cent approval rating), because his empty rhetoric with regards to transportation funding and the municipalities is wearing really thin.

Let’s take a quick look back at the past month in regards to the ever evolving positions of this group.

Robertson's looking for another kind of handshake like this (minus the Conservative propaganda), but is unlikely to walk away with anything of substance from Harper this time around.

I have been delinquent during the Games, as unlike those who transformed themselves into “media”, I took some time away from the blog and municipal politics to enjoy the civic experience of a lifetime.

That being said, I am now back in the swing of things, and will be posting regularly from this point forward. CivicScene will also have some featured pieces coming out in one of Vancouver’s preeminent news outlets in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has left himself little time to rest in between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as he has made his trek eastward to Ottawa and Toronto in search of “a commitment to a national housing strategy” and more provincial and federal funding for transit.

Yet on the heels of Premier Gordon Campbell’s government preparing people for today’s budget which will dramatically “cut back on the operating budgets of government” as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prefacing his upcoming budget by calling it the “toughest of his career,” I can’t see the Vancouver Mayor walking away with anything at all in terms of financial commitments.

But the trip is significant for the way in which Robertson is graduating from his roles and responsibilities that are most often bound within the confines of Vancouver’s official boundaries.

Thu Apr 21, 2011

FACT OF THE DAY

In 2010, Vancouver had fewer than half the number of murders than it had in 2009. There were nine homicides within Vancouver’s city limits, down from 19 killings the previous year.

Quote OF THE DAY

“Perhaps it was my silk dress or the new perfume I’ve been wearing lately. When I asked Suzanne Anton what her New Year’s resolution was, she replied, “To kiss a pretty girl!” and pecked me on the cheek.” – Writer Emily Barca describing her encounter with the lone NPA City Councillor on New Year’s Eve.